HAYSEED - A Whodunnit Feature Film

Hi, I'm Travis Burgess. I am the writer and director of the feature film Hayseed. I'd like to cordially invite you to join our team by investing here on Wefunder. I truly believe that this crowd-equity model can change how films are financed. It's important to us and our industry to demystify elements of the movie business. We believe educating our investors on how films are made, where the money is spent, and how they can make a return is crucial.  Transparency is vital. Openness is key. Join our team and own a piece of our film, Hayseed.

Our business model is simple: make a movie that people will actually want to watch, one that is entertaining—the kind you recommend to a friend immediately after seeing it; make it look glossy like a Hollywood production, but on a small budget, and turn a profit by distributing the film and cutting deals with different territories and streaming services all over the planet.

Over the last decade, I've developed award-winning films and documentaries. I traveled with Coalition Films to Angola to produce Jeremy Xido's feature-length documentary, Death Metal Angola. The film screened at over 60 festivals around the world and had a theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles. 

Following its sale, I co-produced Joseph Castelo's The Preppie Connection, which was released by IFC Films and successfully recouped its investment and now is in overages.

My screenplays have been official selections in some of the country's top competitions. Hayseed was a Second Rounder at this years' Austin Film Festival and a finalist at the 2020 Rhode Island International Film Festival.

So let's talk about our film, Hayseed—it's brooding, mysterious, hilarious, and downright Hitchcockian. Following the discovery of a reverend's body on Easter Sunday, a retired detective turned insurance investigator, tasked with finding grounds for denying a policy payout, uncovers corruption and murder in a rural community.

As in many the "whodunnit" genre exemplars, there is one primary setting; in our case, it's a rural church—an uninspiring and uncomfortable place where everyone betrays everyone else. The emotional tone veers from icy politeness to spitting rage and back again. But, it's the humor that lightens the film's mood and balances well against its darker tones.

Our main character's investigation exposes the divisiveness, sharp teeth, false fronts, and one pure heart of a small farm community. Our film makes allusions to other mystery films like Knives Out, Fargo, A Simple Plan, and Murder on the Orient Express, along with the works of Agatha Christie. The film grapples with Midwestern values and the American dream.

We have brought together an award-winning team of professional filmmakers to take this script to the silver screen. But the production is contingent on a successful Wefunder raise. We will produce the film with the funds raised by First Priority investors on the Wefunder​ platform. Once we have passed the minimum raise threshold (120K) we will enter into pre-production. If we raise more than the minimum it will allow our production to hire more recognizable talent, and increase the "on-screen" production value.

So, please join us if you can—buy a percentage of this film and see a movie realized from script to screen. Thank you.

-Travis Burgess